Running of the Bulls: Pamplona is a wild, dangerous party during the San Fermin Festival

Pamplona’s storied San Fermin fiestas kicked off in the city’s cobblestoned main square as revelers sprayed each other with white wine, water and other liquids. Lindsay Erdall, a 25-year-old nurse from Montana, called the opening party of Spain’s most famous summer festival “the craziest thing I have ever seen … it is amazing.”

That was Friday. Then the real excitement started. Mornings bulls race through the streets, afternoons the same bulls face bullfighters in Pamplona’s arena, and nights are spent partying.

The San Fermin running of the bulls festival became world famous with the publication of Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises.” It is also known around the world for its wild all-night street parties which commemorate the city’s patron saint.

“Running with the bulls was the best experience I’ve had, so much adrenaline,” said Mark Martinez, 27, a student from Los Angeles, California, who said he was in Spain on a 10-day vacation. “I couldn’t touch the horns, I might try that tomorrow,” he said Saturday.

Serious runners, referred to by the cognoscenti of the fiesta as “los divinos” — the divine ones — because of their ability to survive close brushes with death, would never attempt to touch the animals.

The ornery beasts used in this centuries-old fiesta can weigh some 1,100-pounds and have killed 15 people since record keeping began in 1924.

The most recent such tragedy came in 2009 when a young Spaniard was gored in the neck as he tried to escape a bull by sliding feet-first under a fence separating the course from the crowd watching the run. It was the first death at San Fermin in nearly 15 years.

The 8 a.m. runs take place daily until July 14 with each charge broadcast on state television. And then, on the afternoon of each day, the same bulls face matadors in the ring.